Description
Here's a chance to get your hands on a real motorcycling legend.
The name Rickman is synonymous with everything that was great about British motorcycle manufacturing of the 70's, with a race-proven pedigree in a almost every aspect of competition motorcycling.
The Rickman brothers were pioneers in their day, building race specification chassis for both competition and road-going motorcycles, and doing it in a way that made significant improvements to the way in which the bikes performed and handled over their original specifications.
Rickman made and sold chassis kits for a variety of road bikes, but they also had a production facility at their New Milton plant where they produced factory built machines. This is one of those rare bikes - one of only a handful of 'full' Rickman CRs left in the country. Originally produced in 1974 this is a full Rickman factory build, rather than a bike built from one of the chassis kits that were sold.
This particular machine was shipped as a new build to Vancouver, Canada where for more than 20 years it was put into storage and apparently never used. In 1999 it was reimported to the UK, and again was sold to be used as an office ornament. During this time it was featured as a five-page ‘centrefold’ article in the May 2001 issue of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics. At some time after that it found itself in Belgium, and was uprated with a Moriwaki 836cc big-bore conversion.
When it finally returned home in 2019 it was purchased by a local businessman who is well known within the motorcycling industry. He was an employee of the Rickman brothers in the 70’s and actually had a hand in the building of this particular bike. He remains a close friend of Don Rickman to this day.
The bike was treated to a full restoration/ recommissioning which included an engine re-case and full chassis re-plate by the platers originally used by Rickman in the 70’s. Unfortunately not every invoice for these works is available, but a breakdown available of expended costs shows a total of £8156. 71 for various works and parts supplied as part of the project.
On completion of the work the bike again was used as a display piece in the office of the gentleman who finally purchased the machine in 2019. Since then, it has done very few miles, largely being moved from office to office. In 2022 it won CR of the Year at the Rickman day held at Sammy Miller’s motorcycle museum in New Milton. Early in 2024 it was lightly recommissioned by a local motorcycle specialist engineer to the condition that can be seen in the photographs.
This is a rare opportunity to acquire a genuinely historic motorcycle, and one which is quite probably the best example available on the market today
